Windows 8 and CloD (Merged Threads)

[ZaltysZ]

Originally Posted by TheGrunch

The only sticking point I can foresee for simmers is Linux/Mac OS drivers for TrackIR, because the lack of interest from NaturalPoint is obvious.

This is a minor issue. They lack the interest, because majority of sims target Windows platform. If there were more ports of popular sims, NP would probably have to provide support for Linux or loose to LinuxTrack (which works with Webcams and TrackIR devices) or something similar.

The real issue is porting of games. It is not a trivial and cheap task. Valve can boast about linux porting, because lots of their games were created with intention to provide multiplatform support. This is not the case with majority of other older games, in which there is a more tight coupling between game parts and OS specific APIs.

[TheGrunch]

Originally Posted by ZaltysZ

This is a minor issue. They lack the interest, because majority of sims target Windows platform. If there were more ports of popular sims, NP would probably have to provide support for Linux or loose to LinuxTrack (which works with Webcams and TrackIR devices) or something similar.

The real issue is porting of games. It is not a trivial and cheap task. Valve can boast about linux porting, because lots of their games were created with intention to provide multiplatform support. This is not the case with majority of other older games, in which there is a more tight coupling between game parts and OS specific APIs.

I foresee TrackIR support as a problem because they don't necessarily have any relevant experience that would equip them to provide such support - but you are right, it would be a sink or swim venture for them in that scenario. Thanks for pointing out linux-track!
I agree that we shouldn't expect many older games to be ported. The majority of my favourite games work great in WINE (or Dosbox!), but that is just good luck. GOG.com have moved into the Mac market recently, and it will be interesting to see whether they take that a step beyond offering Dosbox games and how the rest of the PC gaming market reacts to Valve's move.
One of the promising things about the many Kickstarter-like projects and indeed many indie games is the prevalence of a Linux/Mac OS port in the planned feature list. If that is actually followed through and catches on it would certainly have a positive effect.

[mcdaniels]

Hi there,
thanks for your replies. In fact Windows 8 gives no boost to games. According to some article I read on tomshardware, 8 is as fast as 7 in most situations.

So: No, there is no need to switch to 8, when using 7.

If you are interested in additional features which are offered by the 8 pro version (e.g. hyper-v, faster boot etc.), this might be a point for someone to switch.

If you still run XP you may take the chance of getting a cheap 8 (til end of January 2013).

Interesting fact is: Only CloD does not work. Every other game (I own) does its job quite well @8.

@Airhog: If you uninstall all previous installations of .net Framework @8, the installer does its job, but CloD only starts for a second (steam says "Playing Cliffs of dover") then quits.

[PopBot]

Originally Posted by mcdaniels

Hi there,
thanks for your replies. In fact Windows 8 gives no boost to games. According to some article I read on tomshardware, 8 is as fast as 7 in most situations.

So: No, there is no need to switch to 8, when using 7.

If you are interested in additional features which are offered by the 8 pro version (e.g. hyper-v, faster boot etc.), this might be a point for someone to switch.

If you still run XP you may take the chance of getting a cheap 8 (til end of January 2013).

Interesting fact is: Only CloD does not work. Every other game (I own) does its job quite well @8.

@Airhog: If you uninstall all previous installations of .net Framework @8, the installer does its job, but CloD only starts for a second (steam says "Playing Cliffs of dover") then quits.

It is strange that COD is the only "AAA"-type title that I have seen that still does not work with Windows 8. L.A. Noire didn't work with Windows 8, but it had to do with .NET 4 in their Social Club program. They released a new version and it works just fine in 8 now.

I looked into the .NET issue at work last week. I set up a Windows 7 and Windows 8 box. On the Windows 7 machine, I skipped installing .NET 4 and went straight to 4.5, since that would be closer to the environment in Windows 8. I used procmon on both machines to see what Launcher.exe is doing. COD worked just fine on Windows 7, but it was still a no-go on Windows 8. I could not find anything in the capture spew from procmon that would lead me to believe anything was wrong in Windows 8. I haven't had any more time to look into it.

[jojimbo]

having looked into the 2 public keys below in NET the .publickeytoken = (8B 68 39 72 5E 48 40 4F ) doesn't exist in the key list, could this have anything to do with the problem?
also the keys in the lists are in this format PublicKeyToken="b77a5c561934e089" no gaps, i know code can be jittery at best of times, could this be an issue?

Originally Posted by jojimbo

here's the manifest code: Net 4.0 by the look of it.

// Metadata version: v4.0.30319
.assembly extern mscorlib
{
  .publickeytoken = (B7 7A 5C 56 19 34 E0 89 )                         // .z\V.4..
  .ver 4:0:0:0
}
.assembly extern maddox
{
  .publickeytoken = (8B 68 39 72 5E 48 40 4F )                         // .h9r^H@O
  .ver 1:0:0:0
}
.assembly Launcher
{
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyCopyrightAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 1D 43 6F 70 79 72 69 67 68 74 20 C2 A9 20   // ...Copyright .. 
                                                                                                  31 43 3A 53 6F 66 74 43 6C 75 62 20 32 30 31 30   // 1C:SoftClub 2010
                                                                                                  00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyDescriptionAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyConfigurationAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyCompanyAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 0B 31 43 3A 53 6F 66 74 43 6C 75 62 00 00 ) // ...1C:SoftClub..
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyProductAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 08 4C 61 75 6E 63 68 65 72 00 00 )          // ...Launcher..
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyTitleAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 08 4C 61 75 6E 63 68 65 72 00 00 )          // ...Launcher..
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyTrademarkAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyDelaySignAttribute::.ctor(bool) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyKeyFileAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Reflection.AssemblyKeyNameAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Runtime.Versioning.TargetFrameworkAttribute::.ctor(string) = ( 01 00 29 2E 4E 45 54 46 72 61 6D 65 77 6F 72 6B   // ..).NETFramework
                                                                                                        2C 56 65 72 73 69 6F 6E 3D 76 34 2E 30 2C 50 72   // ,Version=v4.0,Pr
                                                                                                        6F 66 69 6C 65 3D 43 6C 69 65 6E 74 01 00 54 0E   // ofile=Client..T.
                                                                                                        14 46 72 61 6D 65 77 6F 72 6B 44 69 73 70 6C 61   // .FrameworkDispla
                                                                                                        79 4E 61 6D 65 1F 2E 4E 45 54 20 46 72 61 6D 65   // yName..NET Frame
                                                                                                        77 6F 72 6B 20 34 20 43 6C 69 65 6E 74 20 50 72   // work 4 Client Pr
                                                                                                        6F 66 69 6C 65 )                                  // ofile
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CompilationRelaxationsAttribute::.ctor(int32) = ( 01 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 ) 
  .custom instance void [mscorlib]System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeCompatibilityAttribute::.ctor() = ( 01 00 01 00 54 02 16 57 72 61 70 4E 6F 6E 45 78   // ....T..WrapNonEx
                                                                                                             63 65 70 74 69 6F 6E 54 68 72 6F 77 73 01 )       // ceptionThrows.
  .publickey = (00 24 00 00 04 80 00 00 94 00 00 00 06 02 00 00   // .$..............
                00 24 00 00 52 53 41 31 00 04 00 00 01 00 01 00   // .$..RSA1........
                E7 98 EB 75 11 26 5B 45 8D 28 F3 F0 39 5C E7 1D   // ...u.&[E.(..9\..
                77 80 D7 93 6D B4 11 5C B8 24 88 A0 47 A5 BE B6   // w...m..\.$..G...
                0E CE 1E 5D A1 CB 17 F9 2F B5 0D FF 59 08 6F 14   // ...]..../...Y.o.
                D3 F4 FE D1 78 5B 82 60 AF 49 A9 FF A5 67 C8 12   // ....x[.`.I...g..
                66 DC CA 26 1B 82 3E 5F DE C1 2C BE EA F1 7B 08   // f..&..>_..,...{.
                20 E1 70 2A FE F2 FA 15 47 9E 5A CB 24 B6 7A E7   //  .p*....G.Z.$.z.
                73 C3 C4 E0 51 A1 2E B9 3F A6 E0 1E 26 0B B3 5E   // s...Q...?...&..^
                2D 3D 91 81 6B 65 03 93 CA B6 48 D9 50 CB 2E C0 ) // -=..ke....H.P...
  .hash algorithm 0x00008004
  .ver 1:0:0:0
}
.module Launcher.exe
// MVID: {458DE738-7931-4000-A6B5-87E73479C4A3}
.imagebase 0x11000000
.file alignment 0x00001000
.stackreserve 0x00100000
.subsystem 0x0002       // WINDOWS_GUI
.corflags 0x0000000b    //  ILONLY 32BITREQUIRED
// Image base: 0x06030000

[mcdaniels]

@jojimbo: I dont know if this might be an issue...

I tried to look what Steam is "telling me" before CloD (launcher.exe) gets terminated.

Seems like it is trying to sync with the cloud, than crashes?

[AirHog71]

Uninstalling the .NET packages will only force them to be reinstalled by Win8 itself, and you can't use the individual installers like in Win7. It was interesting that .NET 3.5 wasn't listed in the active packages via add/remove AFTER CoD/Steam invoked the installer. So I done a force install of the packages and I also used the .NET repair tool for Win8 but still nothing.

Without the source code to everything its near impossible to debug this.

The manifest file you're reading just describes the assembies being used. Each manifest will be different depending on how you code your app. But it's not actual running code, it's meant for the CLR.

[ZaltysZ]

Originally Posted by AirHog71

Uninstalling the .NET packages will only force them to be reinstalled by Win8 itself, and you can't use the individual installers like in Win7. It was interesting that .NET 3.5 wasn't listed in the active packages via add/remove AFTER CoD/Steam invoked the installer. So I done a force install of the packages and I also used the .NET repair tool for Win8 but still nothing.

.NET 2.0,3.0,3.5,4.0,4.5 can't be installed from external packages on Win8. They all go as "Windows features" and can be configured via Control Panel –> Program and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off. .NET 3.5 (and 2.0,3.0 are included in same feature) can be turned on/off, but .NET 4.5 (and 4.0) can't - it is always on. Win8 turns .NET 3.5 feature on by itself upon installation of CoD.

[AirHog71]

Originally Posted by ZaltysZ

.NET 2.0,3.0,3.5,4.0,4.5 can't be installed from external packages on Win8. They all go as "Windows features" and can be configured via Control Panel –> Program and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off. .NET 3.5 (and 2.0,3.0 are included in same feature) can be turned on/off, but .NET 4.5 (and 4.0) can't - it is always on. Win8 turns .NET 3.5 feature on by itself upon installation of CoD.

This I know however after reinstalling CoD .NET 3.5 wasn't listed as a package. I had to do a force install via the console and then it showed up.

[slm]

http://www.windows8update.com/2012/1...-xbox-surface/